January 04, 2012

Gardere Wynne Sewell litigator plays for the Brawlers in the Houston Roller Derby league

By day, Amy Catherine Dinn is a briefcase-toting civil litigator. But by night, she is a roller derby skater known as the “prosecutor.” “There’s a certain sense of confidence behind your actions, knowing that you’re capable of doing something that other people wouldn’t even try,” says Dinn, a partner in Gardere Wynne Sewell in Houston. “It’s not an easy sport, to be vulnerable to somebody hitting you and to still be on your feet after they try to knock you over,” she says. “That’s empowering; that builds a lot of confidence.” Dinn was featured in a Jan. 3 column in The Wall Street Journalabout executives and their workout regimens. “I got hooked into doing the article by my league,” she says. “We needed a representative.” Dinn plays on the Brawlers team in the Houston Roller Derby league and is also a member of the league’s all-star team. “I really just love it,” she says. She notes the league is a nonprofit organization, owned and operated by women. It had just 40 skaters in 2005, she says. “Now we have over 120, and we’re going into our seventh season,” she says. Dinn says she chose the “prosecutor” moniker “because it sounds better than the ‘litigator’ — it sounds a lot meaner.”-- Jeanne Graham